Weekly weigh-in and recipes

First up...I lost 1.4 lbs this week. Isn't it funny that when you're trying to lose weight and the first week you lose a big number, then you "only" lose 1.4 lbs the next week, you're all disappointed? Classic Biggest Loser syndrome (for those of you who don't watch the show, the second week everybody gets all sad because they worked just as hard the second week and didn't pull numbers near as big as the first week. Which makes total sense when you think about it, but just watch tomorrow night. I bet at least one person cries because they worked so hard and didn't lose very much weight.). Anyway, I worked out almost every day this last week and 1.4 lbs is fine with me. I'm still doing weight watchers but I used more of my extra points for things like wedding cake, sonic tater tots, food at a baby shower, etc. So I am not surprised at all that it wasn't another 5 lbs. And that's okay. I'm pretty sure a healthy rate of weight loss is 1-2 lbs a week anyway. So enough about that.

Recipes for the week:
Pan-fried pork chops and applesauce...these were fine. Nothing to write home about. I made cinnamon apples instead of applesauce.
Baked sweet potatoes with warm black bean salad...really liked these. I wasn't sure about them at first because we usually do sweet stuff on sweet potatoes like butter, cinnamon, brown sugar etc., but they were really good with the black beans. I used this black bean recipe to start out with (had leftovers) instead of a can of black beans, then added what the recipe called for. I also added a little plain vinegar to give it a little bit of tang. It turned out really good, and very healthy and filling.
The rest of the week we had stuff like fajitas, cooked out hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, stuff like that. This week I am doing a couple of recipes I've done before like the potato bacon torte (substituting half and half for the heavy cream and using less cheese), salmon cakes (using the salmon in the vacuum packs that have already been de-boned and the skin taken out instead of the canned kind--it's about 4 grams of fat and 40 calories less per serving), and spaghetti, and trying a couple new recipes: cottage cheese chicken enchiladas (using reduced-fat cheese) and chicken with balsamic barbecue sauce. Side dishes will be basic stuff like fresh green beans sauteed with shallots, regular side salad, roasted baby carrots, using the rest of those black beans I made last week to go with the enchiladas, etc.

One thing about being on weight watchers is I really hate having to cook certain "healthy" recipes. I find Chad doesn't really like them and neither do I. I also hate using ingredients that are supposed to be good substitutes but really aren't, like ground turkey breast. I'm sorry but that stuff is not good if you are trying to substitute it for ground beef like in hamburgers, meatloaf or spaghetti. I would much rather cook my regular recipes, substitute some of the ingredients for healthier ones (like reduced fat cheese, half and half instead of heavy cream, etc) and just watch portion size. And, I like to put all my "points" into the main dish and serve side dishes that are 0 or 1 points (which is easy to do if I am getting my 8 fruits and veggies a day like I'm supposed to). Then, to me, it really doesn't feel like I'm on a "diet."

Is anybody still reading this and interested in the recipe thing? It takes some time to go through and find the links and I'm not going to do it anymore if nobody cares. Won't hurt my feelings.

Have a good week everyone.